The invention is related to the field of communication networks, e.g. mobile radio system concepts like LTE, LTE-A and its evolution, possibly dealing as one example with the case of joint precoding coordinated multi point (JP-CoMP) transmission.
One important aspect of CoMP is accurate channel estimation and in this context channel prediction is relevant as well. In WO 2010/081535 A1 a model based channel prediction and feedback scheme has been proposed. It uses location feedback instead of e.g. preferred matrix indications (PMI) to find the optimum precoder. In particular, the described teaching relates to a method of operating a user equipment in order to enable a network element to determine channel state information (CSI) of a communication channel between the UE and the network element. The method comprises determining a location of the UE, and transmitting the location of the UE to the network element.
For model based channel prediction a very specific solution has been proposed, namely to feedback a 3 dimensional location information instead of preferred matrix indications (PMI)—relative to a model known by UEs as well as enhanced NodeB (eNB or eNodeB). In combination with a moving vector a channel prediction is possible and it is even possible (at least theoretically) to predict death and birth of new radio channel components.
A different area might be cooperative transmission on the backhaul link of relay networks. Relay nodes (RN) have the benefit that they are fixed and therefore channel estimation is significantly relaxed allowing with less overhead for reference signals (RS) higher accuracy.